coming up on "early today", a massive winter storm brings snow and ice as northeast and mid-atlantic brace for a nasty morning commute. >> i can deal with snow all day long, but when it comes to freezing rain, i don't even want to touch it. meanwhile, snow games steal the show in the nfl. president obama and other world leaders begin making their way to south africa as preparations gear up for the memorial of nelson mandela. plus, more dead pilot whales in florida. the man who snoozed got trapped on a plane. and miley cyrus does the unthinkable to santa. "early today" starts right now. >> announcer: this is "early today" for monday, december 9th. good morning.

i'm richard lui. we start with weather for you. that massive winterer weather system moving east and the car pileup. nbc's leanne gregg has more on the deep freeze. >> reporter: snow and ice bearing down this morning in the northeast, part of a massive system affecting half the country. that same system sunday in wisconsin caused a deadly pileup in whiteout conditions and shut down interstate 94. >> to the best of my knowledge, there is probably in excess of seven semis and 30-plus vehicles. >> it was bad, like you could barely see on the road. >> reporter: ice made driving impossible in parts of kentucky. >> i can deal with snow all day long but when it comes to freezing rain i don't even want to touch it. >> reporter: across the nation, airports canceled 3,000 flights. snow so heavy it caused this roof to collapse. in some areas, temperatures remain as much as 20 degrees below average.

with thousands of customers still without power from the storm there's concern tree limbs and lines weighted by ice could cause new outages for several days. in philadelphia, fans braved close to half foot of snow as the eagles took on the lions. >> i'd rather be home with a pot of gravy and a glass of wine. >> reporter: in baltimore icy conditions with nearly zero visibility at the ravens/vikings game. a wild weekend of weather with winter two weeks away. care bill karins looking at the picture there. >> all of a sudden you deal with monday morning. it is just a mess this morning. two stories are the icy mess and snow up through new england. we heard about treacherous conditions. a lot of schools being cancelled

or closed. connecticut, new york and new england. and the cold blast through the middle of the country. they are all warming up to the middle of the 30s in the middle of the country. the wind chill temperatures are brutal. the cold air keeps coming down from coast to coast. >> experts like yourself warned us on friday so the country was ready for it. a week-long good-bye to former president nelson mandela begins today. president obama and three of his predecessors will be among the tens of thousands in johannesburg. nbc's ron allen is live outside of the former leader's home in soweto. ron, good morning. what is the latest you are seeing? >> reporter: richard, the

celebration continues of the life of nelson mandela. there is grieving and mourning but the mood in this country has been upbeat and celebratory since the passing of mandela. yesterday a day of reflection. today perhaps a day of preparation for the huge memorial service set to take place tomorrow, tuesday, at the huge soccer football stadium here that seats 80,000 people. there will be hundreds of thousands of people perhaps millions lining the route trying to get a glimpse at this huge event. 50 or 75 or more leaders will be here. president obama, clinton, carter and bush, as well. all of this culminates sunday with the funeral.

>> ron allen will be reporting for us throughout the process this week. you heard it here, a washington budget deal might be imminent. "the washington post" reports that finishing touches are under way on capitol hill with a sealed deal on capitol hill. it will be the first successful budget accord since 2011, but it amounts to little more than a cease-fire according to "the post," and that's because the deal would not significantly reduce the $7.3 trillion in debt it wouldn't close corporate tax loopholes and wouldn't extend retirement programs and also wouldn't fully replace sequester cuts. this deal would avoid another debt battle, though on capitol hill until another budget is due. a rare trip today to pakistan for defense secretary chuck hagel. he hopes to repair the strained

relationship. he made a surprise visit to troops in afghanistan and said a budget deal could restore to the military. so the death toll related to a pod of wayward whales has risen. 11 dead pilot whales. the total number of recovered carcasses rise to 22. last week rescueers worked franticly to move whales. a bizarre plane incident left one passenger with quite a surprise. tom wagner was on a united flight from louisiana to california when he awoke from the nap to find the flight empty and the plane locked. and he is inside. >> i looked up at the ceiling, and saw the lights were out, looked down the aisle, and nobody was home.

>> you can hear more of wagner's tale of how he called his girlfriend to get him out this morning on the "today" show. just his voice. >> did he have cocktails? there has to be more to the story. >> you know how it is when you are asleep sometimes it is tough to be waken up. >> i don't know. people were taking bags down. let's take a look at this forecast out there. it is still cold in the west. that arctic air mass that moved in has been reinforced. we are at 27 in sacramento. 31 in vegas this morning. 18 in portland. minus 3 in boise. it is still very cold out there. we have one interesting feature just along the border of washington state and oregon like a little low, a small spin in the atmosphere. >> a mezzo low?

>> smaller storm than normally. starting to inch towards the coast. we have winter weather advisories. it may make its way towards i-5. that is probably the only snow. 39 and sunny. thnot a lot of snow so travel should be okay. when we come back i will show you what alaska is up to. >> planes not affected going that way? >> shouldn't be. >> meso low. >> we'll explain it in the break. fans say a final good bye to actor paul walker. and a melee over a soccer match.

we'll tell you when sparked it when "early today" returns in two minutes.

thousands of fans drove their souped up cars and signed final farewell cards on sunday for paul walker. a christmas tree stands at the site where he and a friend died in a car crash. and the protesters toppled a statue and attacked it with hammers. protesters plarched through thailand's capital. a soccer game was delayed more than an hour because fans were fighting each other.

police used rubber bullets and tear gas. one injured person was airlifted to a hospital. president obama and the first lady applauded five new honorees singer billy joel, herbie hancock, actress shirley maclaine and guitarist carlos santana. now to business we turn to mary thompson. >> the markets look to add to gains as well as positive economic data over the weekend from china. despite friday's rally the dow and s&p did snap an eight week win streak. u.s. airways and american airlines will close the merger today creating the world's largest airline. on saturday supreme court justice denied a last ditched attempt to block the deal. today it's green monday. ebay coined the name in 2007. it marks one of the biggest online shopping days of the

year. wal-mart.com will feature several black friday deals again today on green monday. >> any reason to buy or sell. >> now to a crack down of the cuddling industry. a -- officials suspect a snuggle house is a front for prostitution or worse. the assistant city attorney saying, quote, there's no way that sexual assault will not happen. no offense to men, but i don't know any men who want to just snuggle. a waitress has been let go from her job. the story has been questioned. he thought he was buying an x box 1 for $735 but all he got was a low res photoe. a local business donated a game

system to him and ebay helped him get a full refund. who is the greatest in all the land in college football? we have that. and the nfl record set this weekend including the epic snow bowl. what was vevo's most watched music video of 2013?

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what was the most watched video of 2013? was it robin thicke's "blurred lines," miley cyrus' "wrecking ball," "diamonds," rihanna, or one direction's "kiss you"? the saints and the panthers team record of eight wins in a row. brees is now the fifth to surpass. a last minute controversial call sets up tom brady for a touchdown with seconds left. patriots win 27-26 but also lose star rob gronkowski.

and the longest field goal in history. the broncos titans game. matt prater, a 61-yarder. broncos beat them 51-28 three of the longest ever kicked in denver. the niners at their second to last game to play at candle stick win this one. and frozen football, the snow cost adrian peterson a foot sprain. ten seconds left, joe flacco connects for a touchdown. ravens in that tundra 29-26. miami dolphins, they freeze out the steelers. and blizzard conditions look at this. no field goal attempts. why? ask calvin johnson who face

plants him. eagles come back to win 34-20 s.e.c. championship, auburn wins in a scoring bonanza. auburn plays number one in the championship. state handed undefeated osu the first loss in 25 games. 34-24 in this one. with osu out auburn is in. how do fans celebrate? they burn anything in lansing. standing ovation for bryant's first game in eight months. 9 points and 8 turnovers in 28 minutes of play. ross was not so rusty with this half-time buzzer beater. a stunning revelation from

scottish singing sensation susan boyle plus miley cyrus brings her wrecking ball to the jingle ball.

welcome back. right now the temperature in sacramento, the temperature in vegas, those locations are colder thanfairbanks, alaska. usually we get a warm southerly wind coming into alaska.

should be about minus 12 for an average overnight low. very unusual stuff. snow possible. one to two inches across i-5. careful out there. monday night football, the weather won't be too bad? >> i believe it is chicago. it should be very cold. the slowest movie going weekend of the year spells doom for christian bail's latest. it flopped with a paltry $5.3 million opening. disney's "frozen" was able to finally able to top "catching fire." susan boyle said she was diagnosed with asperger's syndrome last year. she was told in the past she suffered from brain damage but is happy to, quote, have a clear understanding of what is wrong. this weekend paul rudd hosted "saturday night live" and was less than cordial with

fellow directioners. >> who is your favorite? >> nile. >> you don't know your basic facts. no, no. and miley cyrus may not have received any grammy nominations this year, but she's getting the last laugh. at friday's jingle ball concert she twerked on a santa holding a bottle of booze. merry christmas everyone. >> thanks. >> thank you very much. >> send me a poster of that. >> new year's resolution, maybe less twerking. i'm richard lui. this is "early today." we hope this is just your first stop of the day on nbc.

leading the news in "the washington post," north korea confirms purge of kim jong-un's uncle describes anti-state crimes. the north claiming he abused drugs, disobeyed orders and worked in secret to obtain more power. and 85-year-old vet says he was comfortable. merrill newman was held for more than a month when asked about a video released showing him an awkwardly worded apology for killing north koreans during the war he told "the sentinel post" that is not my english. a storm is wreaking havoc and paralyzed roads causing a deadly pileup on the pennsylvania turnpike sunday. more than 1,000 flights are cancelled nationwide today. a week long good-bye to

former south african president nelson mandela begins today. president obama and others will be among the tens of thousands for the memorial service on tuesday. mandela died thursday at the age of 95. and protesters in ukraine toppled a statue of soviet state founder vladimir lenin and attacked it with a hammer rejecting the historic influence over ukraine. thousands were demonstrating against the government abandoning a pact with the european union and moving closer to russia. one online video helped to ensure that cat lovers got eight hours of uninterrupted fun. christmas cat tv was live for 48 hours and allowed viewers to interact with a cat lady via twitter. to help celebrate sony's christmas album. along with the north shore animal league. 48 hours of cat fun. >> i want to know who the cat lady is. she is my new twitter hero.

>> there she is right there. she has the sign. it's time for a look ahead and a look back. former san diego mayor bob filner will be sentenced today. filner resigned and pleaded guilty but not expected to get any jail time for sexual harassment allegations. on this day in 1992, prince charles and princess diana officially split up as reported with nbc's rick davis. >> both had other relationships so it was not a surprise. >> it's announced from buckingham palace that we regret that the prince and princess of wales have decided to state. -- separate. >> donny osmond is 56. kirk douglas is 97. coming up on the "today" show, back to downtowne ee ee een abb

thank you for watching "early to

this morning the deputy who shot and killed a 13-year-old boy is expected to be back on the job but he won't be out in the field. we'll explain coming up. >> what we're learning about top fire officials who responded to the deadly crash at sfo, the critical training course they never took. >> $400,000 for prime real estate in san jose. only one catch, it was nearly destroyed by fire two years ago. why realtors and potential buyers say it's such a steal. >> a live look outside right now. san bruno mountain i think is what we're looking from. >> that is correct. it's a beautiful day. very cold. it is monday, december 9th and this is "today in the bay."